Mid Channel carnage

We report on the RORC De Guingand Bowl as 60 boats retire en-route to Cherbourg

One of the oldest superstitions in sailing is not to set to sea on Friday 13th – many of the competitors in this years RORC De Guingand Bowl offshore race perhaps wished they had heeded the warning.

100 boats entered, 80 decided to take to the start line in the evening of Friday 13th, 60 boats retired, leaving just 20 to make it to the finish.

The race’s two most prominent entries - Charles Dunstone’s Enigma and the Farr 52 Bear of Britain - both decided before Friday that they would not compete.

The race committee selected the longest of their three options for the course which took the fleet away from the Squadron line in Cowes and down the western Solent. With the wind around the 20 knot mark and in the east-north east this was a rapid run down to the RORC Offshore Buoy located 20 miles south of St Albans Head.

Leaving this mark to port the fleet were then faced with a dark 46 mile beat into the teeth of the weather - now regularly touching 30 knots - to the rather aptly named Ocean Safety Offshore Buoy to the south of Selsey Bill. For those still standing a run down to Cherbourg on the French coast was the reward.

One of the early casualties was the newly renamed Farr 45 John Merricks. Their first spinnaker blew out shortly after hoisting it off the startline and they consigned another to the sail loft shortly after. Skipper Luke McCarthy explained to TheDailySail that they had got a gybe wrong at Hurst and put the pole through their S5. With two of his best downwind sails gone, a rather rough looking forecast and a charter for the Scottish Series in the book McCarthy decided to call it a day.

Peter Rutter with his Elan 37 Quokka, did not make it out of the Solent before being the first of several yachts in the race to loose their rig.

The fleet rounded the RORC buoy in darkness and the ensuing beat saw the most casualties. “That was the leg that really sorted them out,” commented Race Officer Ian Loffhagen. “There was a lot of seasickness and a fair degree of gear failure and lot of them quite wisely decided to retire.”

The Yarmouth lifeboat, the Swanage lifeboat, the Poole lifeboat, the Weymouth lifeboat and the Cherbourg lifeboat were all called into action during the night.

The most serious incident was onboard the Swan 51 Grandee who lost a man overboard. The Portland Coastguard coordinated the operation with two competing yachts standing by, the Coastguard Helicopter and the P and O cruise ship Aurora.

The crew of Grandee managed to recover their man after a period of ten minutes.

Loffhagen explained to TheDailySail that the coastguard was concerned over the risk of secondary drowning to the individual [where swallowed sea water comes up later and is again a drowning risk to the individual] and they wanted get the person off the boat and to hospital.

The plan was to use the Aurora (which ironically had caused a delay in the start of the race as it made its way from its dock in Southampton and through the Eastern Solent) as a shield from the prevailing winds to enable a Hi-Line rescue by helicopter. This ultimately failed and with the crew man under observation the Grandee was escorted to Weymouth by a lifeboat. After check ups the crew man was later released from hospital.

Other casualties included a crewman suffering from head injuries on the J160 Jeu D’Esprit and also on the Prima 38 White Knuckles. Both were later released from hospital.

“Quite a few went to Poole,” said Loffhagen of the many other retirements during the night, “some to Weymouth, some back in through the Needles, some through the forts. Some retired to Cherbourg - having gone right on the beat they just carried on.

“Most of the skippers took the responsibility on themselves and found that their crew and boat strength needed some work before the Fastnet. They did the wise thing. It was a bit of a wake up call that sometimes it can be pretty tough.”

Moonshadow II, a Contessa 32, one of the smallest boats in the fleet, reached the end of the beat at 1am on Sunday morning before deciding to retire.

Many of the competitors were using the race as part of their 300 mile qualification for the Rolex Fastnet Race in August. “From our point of view,” said the RORC’s Loffhagen, “it was an exceptionally good qualifier for the Fastnet. In that they got a taste of what it really might be like. They may have a 200 mile windy beat in the Fastnet.”

First to finish the race was the Volvo 60 Venom, whose crew reported a healthy 24 knots boat speed on the final run into Cherbourg. Second boat to finish, in 17 hours and 27 minutes was Chris Brown’s and Peter Harding’s DK46 Fidessa Fastwave, they took overall victory in IRC on corrected time. With Venom’s corrected time putting her in second spot third place went to Shaun Frohlich’s IMX45 Exabyte III.

Dominic Chappell’s IMX40 Maverick 2 won IRC 1, IRC 2 was won by Mark Jephcott’s Swan 44 Selene, and the Sigma 38 Supernatural won IRC3.

The RORC will be asking skippers of all yachts involved in significant incidents to submit a report. These will then be collated and taken to committee to see if any lessons can be learnt for the future.

While the race was obviously an excellent test for the Fastnet, and for those that finished an excellent test of their boat and crew, it has also demonstrated what a burden a fleet of racing yachts can be on the lifeboat crews and coastguard resources. In this case, yacht racing was not the winner.

IRC Results overall:

	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Elapsed	Handicap	Corrected
1	GBR2R	Fidessa-Fastwave	DK 46	Chris Brown/Peter Harding	17:27:49	1.209	21:06:49
2	BER2000	Venom	Volvo 60	Windward Sailing	15:29:17	1.419	21:58:39
3	IRL4500	Exabyte III	IMX 45	Shaun Frohlich	19:22:02	1.155	22:22:09
4	GBR236R	Erivale	DK 46	Mike Greville	18:45:14	1.208	22:39:17
5	GBR976	Selene	Swan 44	Mark Jephcott	23:34:23	0.991	23:21:39
6	GBR124	Yeoman of Hamble	Judel/Vrolijk 44	David Aisher	20:15:15	1.161	23:30:54
7	GBR1540R	Maverick 2	IMX 40	Dominic Chappell	21:36:10	1.092	23:35:25
8	GBR8354	Supernatural	Sigma 38	Dominic Cahill	1 - 00:10:02	0.99	23:55:32
9	GBR125L	Wings of the Wind	J 125	Steven Thorpe	20:10:38	1.188	23:58:14
10	GBR3689	Mavis III of Gosport	Carter 36	Stephen Winter	1 - 01:43:44	0.948	1 - 00:23:28
11	GBR3348T	Exocet of Messilah	X 119	Christopher Copeland	23:35:09	1.052	1 - 00:48:44
12	GBR8340	Sigmagician	Sigma 38	Capital Sailing Ltd	1 - 02:13:34	0.99	1 - 01:57:50
13	FRA29956	Groupe Partouche	A 40	Christopher Coatnoan	1 - 00:02:18	1.091	1 - 02:13:33
14	GBR8313	Premier Cru	Sigma 38	James Barr	1 - 02:35:56	0.99	1 - 02:19:58
15	GBR8445R	Beaurepere	Grand Soleil 45	Reach 4 The Wind	1 - 00:29:34	1.076	1 - 02:21:15
16	GBR8368T	Adelaide Star	Bavaria 44	Stuart Cooper	1 - 02:27:36	1.018	1 - 02:56:11
17	GBR8291	Incitatus	Sigma 38	British Offshore Sailing School	1 - 03:17:30	0.99	1 - 03:01:08
18	GBR195T	Temptress of Down	Sun Odyssey 47	Kevin & Susie Harris	1 - 02:29:22	1.037	1 - 03:28:10
19	33	Olympian Challenger	Open 50	Steve White	1 - 00:24:08	1.152	1 - 04:06:41
20	GBR1751T	Spellbinder of Wytch	Starlight 39	Phoenix YC	1 - 07:09:15	0.969	1 - 06:11:18

Retirements:

Sail Number	Name	Types	Owner
CO354	Moonshadow II	Contessa 32	Ian Coglin
GBR4284	Muskoka	Sigma 33	Edwin Smith
K4387	Iskareen	Sigma 33	David Stow
GBR4455	Knights Challenge	Sigma 33	Janet Sainsbury & Mac Keight
GBR4530	Dino Volante	Sigma 33	Christopher Clark
GBR6677	Sixes and Sevens	Sigma 33	Dwyer/Norman/Pullen/Whitmore
GBR3917	Tantrum of Langstone	Sigma 36	Chris Staples
GBR9563R	Sonic Boom	First 31.7	Simon Brady
FRA28028	Arobase 3	First 31.7	Thierry Leprince
GBR9892	Leo Lady	Sigma 362	Graham Nixon
GBR4695T	Associate	Sweden 38	Christopher Russell
GBR8703T	Gem	Bavaria 36	Richard Baker
GBR3800C	Gambit	Sigma 38	Adrian Wood
GBR5615T	No Fear	Sigma 38	Guy Prest
GBR8146	Vitesse	Sigma 38	Simcox/Taunt/England
GBR8287	Persephone of London	Sigma 38	Nigel Goodhew
GBR8329	Zanzara	Sigma 38	Capital Sailing Ltd
GBR8342	Inspiration of Boss	Sigma 38	British Offshore Sailing School
GBR8356R	Dragonfly of Bosham	Sigma 38	Neil Aitchison/G Charlwood
GBR8408	Festina Lente	Sigma 38	Meakins Family
GBR8223T	Symphony	Scanyacht 291	Reuben Hoare
FRA28711	Foggy Dew	JPK 960	Noel Racine
GBR6994T	Superted IV	Maxi 1100	Matt Findlay
GBR8320R	White Knight V	X 332	Royal Armoured Corps YC
FRA28727	Fleur de Sel	JPK 9.60	Coralie Clais
GBR1605R	Juneau	J 105	Mike West
FRA369	Night and Day	J 105	Pascal Loison
GBR7716R	Psipsina	HOD 35	John Loden
GBR1090L	Aria	J 109	Luca Rubinelli
GBR1037L	Quokka	Elan 37	Peter Rutter
FRA21695	Jee Raft	J109	Baune/Renier
GBR560	Simply the Best	Baltic 42	Philip Wood
GBR6909R	Jugular	J 109	John Pickles
GBR1535R	White Cloud IX	HOD 35	John Donnelly
GBR8934T	Lazy Dawn	First 40.7	Chris Dyson
GBR9812R	Chantelle	Beneteau 42s7	James Ives and Tim Cork
GBR8800T	Renaissance	Dehler 39	David Scott
GBR9824	NJOS	Corby 35	Tim Octon
GBR2455	Eclipse V	Sigma 400	Jon Sanders
GBR1622R	Junkanoo	Swan 44	Colin Buffin
GBR8778R	Dark Star	X 412	Andy Stratton
GBR1694R	Ingotism	X 412	Bank of England Sailing Club
GBR7360T	Quinta	First 40.7	Stanley Davies
GBR9380R	Forward Thinking	Reflex 38	Nigel Crockford
GBR7388R	Leopard	Reflex 38	Rob Dornton-Duff
GBR8052T	Spirit of Venus	First 40.7	On Deck Charters Ltd
GBR38R	Bornslippy 2	Prima 38	Julian Bates
GBR6504N	Talisman	Prima 38	Simon Harwood
GBR6510N	Serendip	Prima 38	Paul King
GBR8581R	Jalfrezi	J 120	1 KOSB
GBR6501N	White Knuckles	Prima 38	Mervyn Hughes
GBR3935R	Hooligan V	Max Fun 35	Edward Broadway
GBR1303	Grandee of Crab Tree Lane	Swan 51	Phil Taylor
GBR2027	Eclipse VII	Humphreys 12m	Douglas & Clare Hassell
GBR9536R	Thunder 2	Mills 37	Robert Boulter
GBR60R	Jeronimo	J 133	Jonathan & Lisa Goring
GBR1601R	Jeu D'Esprit	J 160	Clem Jones
GBR8248	Incisor of Wight	Corby 45	Windward Sailing
GBR5955T	John Merricks	Farr 45	John Merrick Sailing Trust
GBR8651R	Spirit of Minerva	Farr Millenium 65	On Deck Charters Ltd